Having A Tough Time Cleaning Vinyl Flooring?
Vinyl flooring should be easy to keep clean. It doesn't require very special cleaning solutions, and it's usually easy to sweep and mop. Yet if you've found yourself repeatedly mopping the floors to still end up with new mop pads turning dark with dirt, which is not uncommon, you may decide these floors are hard to clean.
Vinyl flooring isn't actually that hard to clean. It turns out the cause can be one of a few things that can leave dirt on the floor even after you think you've mopped it up. It could also be a combination. Either way, looking at what could cause dirt to remain on the flooring should help.
You're Cleaning With Dirty Water
You may think the water you're cleaning with is clean because you put clean water in the bucket to begin with. However, as you mop the floor and put the mop back into the bucket to re-wet the mop head, you're dropping off dirt into the water. Even if you squeeze out the mop head in a separate bucket before dipping it back in the clean water, there will still be dirt on the mop head that makes it into the clean-water bucket. That dirt floats off into the water and ends up back on the mop head when you dunk the mop head in the bucket yet again. You end up mopping the floor with this semi-dirty water, and when the water evaporates, you still have that dirt on the floor because the dirt isn't going to disappear into thin air. The best solution is to dry off the floor right after mopping instead of letting it air-dry because wiping off the water should remove at least some of that dirt.
Outside Dirt Is Coming Inside
Even if you take your shoes off before walking into your home and have no pets, kids, or visitors coming inside, you can still have outside dirt get into the home and settle on the floor. The dirt can blow in through gaps under your door or through open windows; standard window screens really aren't going to stop tiny soot particles from outside from blowing into your home on a breeze. And, when you walk over the areas where the dirt has settled, you end up carrying that dirt further into your home. There's not much you can do about this other than maybe narrowing the gap at the bottom of the front door with better weatherstripping. You may just have to clean the floor more if you live by a busy street, for example.
There's Dirt in the Grooves Between the Planks and Tiles
When vinyl tiles or planks (for the wood-printed type of tile), and not full sheets, are placed on a floor, you'll have spaces or grooves between each tile. This is normal. But dirt can get caught in those grooves as you clean, and then as you walk around, your feet can pick up that dirt and spread it around. It's frustrating, for sure, but it's fairly common and can happen with any sort of tiled floor.
Try drying the floor after mopping instead of letting it air-dry, and try sweeping and mopping a little more frequently. That should remove a lot of the dirt you're seeing after you've cleaned.
For more information about vinyl floors, contact a local company.
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